Letter to the Editor: Cameron Crowe

I’m writing regarding your item on Patrick Fugit, our leading man from “Almost Famous” (Daily Variety, April 6). While we’re all overjoyed for Patrick for having landed a plum role in “White Oleander,” there was a factual error in the piece that is very unfair to the great Gail Levin, our esteemed casting director who first spotted Fugit.

It’s my fault. When writing a piece for Rolling Stone on the casting of Fugit, I unfortunately perpetuated a bit of folklore that I later found was untrue. Patrick’s audition tape for “Almost Famous” was never “about to be destroyed.” While being shipped back from a casting trip to New York, the box containing Patrick’s audition tape was temporarily misplaced by the shipping company.

Gail Levin was always aware of the audition tape, watched and guarded over every bit of material pertaining to the hundreds of actors who did auditions. She is a tireless and peerless casting director who deserves for the record to show she never lost that tape.

Thank goodness for the audio commentary track on our future DVD, I’ll correct the record there as well.